updated 04:10 pm EDT, Mon March 12, 2012

Windows Phone Tango to be called 7.5 Refresh

Duico Stefania, the Italian head of Windows Phone, revealed to WindowsPhoneItaly that the codenamed Tango update to the mobile OS is called 7.5 Refresh. The update lowers the practical minimum hardware specs to 256MB or RAM, or effectively half. As such, however, some functions and features of the OS won't be available, including fast app switching, HD playback for some video formats, and more.

Whether apps that can support 512MB hardware will automatically turn features on remains to be seen, but is likely to depend on each individual developer.

The update is expected to begin showing up in April, or as early as late in March. Phones like the Nokia Lumia 610 and ZTE Orbit will ship with 7.5 Refresh from the start.

The Apollo codename, in the meantime meantime, refers to Windows Phone 8, which is the next generation of Microsoft's mobile OS and is expected to bring more profound changes.